October 2008

Congratulations to the latest winner of Screen Play's Your Turn blogging competition, which awards one writer with a PlayStation 3 console courtesy of Sony Computer Entertainment.

This month's winner is "RE12", a 29-year-old public servant from the nation's capital, who was forced to hide behind a pseudonym for his piece "Serving two mistresses" so as not to jeopardise his new relationship.

Hopefully his shiny new PS3 won't cause any strain at home, but if it does, at least his blog prompted plenty of helpful advice in the comments section about how to encourage your significant other to indulge in gaming (as well as suggestions on finding a new partner more appreciative of your joypad skills...)

Another PS3 console will be up for grabs next month, so make sure you find some time between enjoying the festive season's gaming bounty to pen your own Your Turn contribution.

Sydney readers looking for something novel to do this weekend should check out the free LittleBigPlanet interactive exhibition at the MTV Gallery.

Open today until Sunday, the exhibition features the work of eight creative minds including DJ Kid Kenobi (pictured), actress Pia Miranda, filmmaker Guy Verge Wallace and television personality Mike Hammond. Each celebrity has designed their own LittleBigPlanet level.

Giancarlo Mori, senior vice president of Animal Logic, one of the world's most highly respected digital production companies, has also contributed a level and believes LittleBigPlanet is significant as an emerging form of interactive art.

"Gaming promises to make the player an accomplice and a protagonist in the experience. Once fully evolved as a form, it will tell us about ourselves, and our choices as human beings as few other forms of expression can. It's a higher ground waiting to be reached, its promise as an art form is concrete and uniquely arousing."

Rock Band creator Harmonix is working on a new game based on the music of the most popular band of all time, The Beatles.

The partnership between developer Harmonix, games publisher MTV Games and music publisher Apple Corps Ltd will result in The Beatles music appearing in an interactive format for the first time.

The game is not a new version of Rock Band but rather a new property, and has been described as "an unprecedented, experiential progression through and celebration of the music and artistry of The Beatles" that will feature songs from the band's entire catalogue.

The game has the blessing of Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, as well as enjoying input from Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

Giles Martin, co-producer of The Beatles excellent LOVE remix album with his father George, will serve as music producer for the game.

Fresh from writing a Livewire cover story for The Age yesterday, Screen Play regular Daniel Chlebowczyk returns today with an interesting blog on the troubling divide between "casual" and "hardcore" gamers.

As a pro gamer who must devote countless hours to training, I'm sure there is no debate about which camp Daniel is in.

But as he interestingly points out in his latest Your Turn piece below, the burgeoning casual gaming market has changed the definition of what it means to be a casual player.

Click below for the piece, and I will be keen to hear what you think...

The introduction of an R18+ rating for computer games has been delayed indefinitely after South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson withdrew his support for a discussion paper and public consultation process.

Censorship ministers in March agreed "in principle" to canvas public opinion on the proposed introduction of a R18+ classification for games and release a discussion paper on the issue, but Mr Atkinson has refused to agree to make the report public, effectively shelving it.

The draft discussion paper, simply titled "R18+ for computer games" was sent to ministers last month and details the "pros and cons" of introducing an adults-only rating for games.

The paper would have been available to the public on the internet and provided to interested parties such as games industry groups and family associations to seek their views.

Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls, who has long supported the push for an R18+ games rating and took the lead in drafting the discussion paper, appears resigned that no changes to the classification system for games will be made anytime soon.

It's a must-read for anyone curious about pro gaming, and I will be interested to read everyone's thoughts on what needs to happen for Daniel's dreams of growth in local e-sports to become reality.

Daniel believes more regular e-sports competitions in Australia will help improve the standard of local competition and sharpen the skills of current competitors, who currently struggle to get access to quality opponents to practice against.

I will also be interested to hear whether you think competitive gaming will take off as a popular spectator sport.

The comprehensive Interactive Australia 2009 report would not be complete without asking gamers why they choose to play computer and video games in their precious spare time.

Unsurprisingly, simply "having fun" and "relaxing" were the most frequently selected responses, with one quarter of Australian adult gamers choosing these explanations. "Passing time" and "being challenged" were also popular reasons.

Most attitudes towards games are overwhelmingly positive. Nearly all adult gamers and non-gamers surveyed for the study say games relieve boredom and offer excitement. Over 80 per cent also say games are mentally stimulating, reduce stress, are educational and contribute to culture, with over 75 per cent of respondents believing that
interactivity makes games more educational than other media.

Today Aditya Gollakota, a 15-year gaming veteran who currently works as an integration consultant for a major retailer, takes his Your Turn debut to explore why he plays, and is keen to hear your reasons for picking up a joypad.

The average age of Australian video game players continues to rise as more households than ever before bring a device for playing games into their homes.

Nearly 70 per cent of Australians now play video games, with the average age of players now 30 years. The average is up from 28 years in 2007 and 24 years in 2005.

"Just three years ago, the gap between gamers and non-gamers was over 20 years, an entire generation," according to the Interactive Australia 2009 report released this week.

"Today, the difference between the two has narrowed to within a generation." By just 2014, the average age of gamers will be the same as the average age of non-gamers.

The youngest gamers identified in the study were just three years of age, while the oldest were in their eighties, including one gamer who is 88.

More girls and women are also playing games. Females now make up 46 per cent of the gaming population, up from 41 per cent in 2007 and 38 per cent in 2005. Within just two years, the proportion of female gamers in Australia will be equal to males.

Nintendo looks likely to have another astonishingly successful Christmas, with both DS and Wii currently selling around 20,000 units each week in Australia.

The DS is about to pass 1.5 million sales in Australia, while the Wii has notched up sales of 700,000. Software sales for both platforms are also strong.

However the rosy GfK figures cannot hide the fact that many long-time admirers of the Japanese creative giant are underwhelmed by Nintendo's festive season catalogue, with Wii Music and Animal Crossing the highlights.

Long-time lurker, first-time poster "McBlogger with fries" is one of many Nintendo fans currently wondering why he's not playing with his Nintendo consoles as much as he used to. Click below for his first contribution to Screen Play's series of Your Turn reader generated blogs...

Over 90 per cent of Australians believe an R18+ rating for video games should be introduced in this country according to a major new study.

Australia is the only developed nation without a classification for games suitable for adults, meaning that titles exceeding the boundaries of the highest MA15+ rating are banned or edited.

The Interactive Australia 2009 report produced by Bond University for the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia found 91 per cent of Australian adults (including both game players and non-players) think that Australia should have an R18+ for games.

But the study also found many Australians were ignorant of our classification system, with two thirds of respondents unaware that Australia had no R18+ games rating.

Video gaming's most popular character needed a moustache because technology limitations in 1981 prevented Shigeru Miyamoto from adding a mouth to his famous creation.

Over 200 games later, his mo is now more iconic than anything Burt Reynolds or Ron Jeremy dared to grow over their lips. But are you prepared to join the likes of Mario, Solid Snake and The King of All Cosmos and grow your own soup strainer?

Singo the Dingo today lays down the Movember challenge. He has joined a Screen Play Movember team to raise funds and awareness for men's health.

A large gaming contingent will also join the Screen Play team to demonstrate the goodwill and social conscience of gamers, with Movember sponsor THQ Asia Pacific on a mission to get over 1000 members of the Australian video games industry to sign up. Everyone in the THQ office is growing a mo, and over 400 EB Games staff have also signed up...

Xbox 360 blockbuster Gears of War 2 promises to be one of the games of the year when its released on November 7.

Screen Play's preview earlier in the month described it as "such an entertaining, bombastic, testosterone-fuelled ride that it is a guaranteed hit, with the accompanying danger of overshadowing everything else and undermining Microsoft's efforts this Christmas to shake off the Xbox 360 console's ingrained 'boy's toy' image."

Design director Cliff Bleszinski is certainly confident his team has created an even more entertaining package than its hugely popular predecessor.

Click below for part two of Screen Play's exclusive interview with Bleszinski in which he covers subjects like the genesis of the Gears of War series, its cliches and innovation, the importance of narrative in action games, the features he is most pleased with, and why shooters appeal to so many people.

The Australian gaming community has lost one of its most passionate and active contributors.

Tim Richards, a lawyer, writer, founder of Melbourne's Dissecta gaming events, and a keen supporter of the Australian game development community for over a decade, passed away on Tuesday at the Alfred Hospital after a long battle with heart disease and a recent transplant. He was just 36.

As the touching death notice from his family in The Age read, Tim's passing was "far too soon for someone so loved and talented".

Aussie anthems like Cold Chisel's Khe Sahn and John Farnham's You're the Voice will feature in the local version of Microsoft's SingStar competitor for Xbox 360.

Microsoft unveiled the 40-strong track list for the Australian version of Lips today, which also includes local hits like Scar by Missy Higgins, Shannon Noll's Shine, Silverchair's Straight Lines and Men at Work's Be Good Johnny.

The game will be released in late November and include two wireless microphones for $99.

Cliff Bleszinski is the public face of Epic Games, creators of Unreal and Gears of War, and one of the world's most prominent game designers.

Whether you like him or loathe him for his frat boy demeanour, you cannot deny Bleszinski's passion for games, and his gaming credits suggest he is a very talented designer.

Bleszinski made his first game when he was just 17, which attracted the attention of the North Carolina-based Epic Games, the studio he has been with ever since.

Click below for part one of Screen Play's exclusive interview with Bleszinski, in which we cover topics like his recent change of moniker, his feelings on being in the limelight, the challenges for the gaming industry, how every director in Hollywood wants to be like him, and how he'd one day like to make a kids game...

As speculation mounts on the future of the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, organisers of Australia's eGames Expo in Melbourne are busily gearing up for their third annual show next month.

While the scale of the past two shows at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre has been small, the eGames events have been enthusiastically embraced by the local gaming community and featured a terrific atmosphere.

The event will be held from November 14 to 16 and is joined by the Digital Lifestyle Show, so you will also be able to shop for a new LCD or plasma as well as items like mobile phones, music devices and PCs.

Illustrator, writer and student Jacob Martin not only likes to give his gadgets names, he also likes to dream up new ideas for games.

His latest idea is a casual gaming title which will help shy and retiring types learn the skills necessary to woo a potential partner.

The game would be kind of like a virtual Hitch or Love Guru, and would build confidence in the player rather than shatter their fragile self-esteem.

Above all, it would have to be easy to play - certainly much easier than popular Japanese dating games. The last time this reviewer sampled a Japanese dating game (for purely research purposes) I didn't even get to first base...

Transmission Games, the Melbourne-based studio formerly known as IR Gurus and developers of AFL 07, Heroes of the Pacific and the forthcoming Heroes Over Europe, is working on a major cricket title and needs focus testers.

Designer Heath Smith says Transmission is "hoping to involve the games community in the development of the project right from beginning" and promises Screen Play readers that the process should be a fun and interesting experience.

The focus testing session will be held on November 1 at the Transmission offices in West Melbourne.

If you're a cricket fan or just love video games and would like to help Transmission make a quality cricket simulation, you can e-mail Heath Smith at heath.smith@gmail.com for more details.

In all the excitement about LittleBigPlanet's delayed release yesterday, I neglected to mention that Sony has announced that Australians will receive a free copy of the fabulous game with every PlayStation 3 console sold.

The bundle offer was supposed to begin this Thursday, but with the delay to LittleBigPlanet's release will now be effective from the game's Australian release date, which Sony currently expect will be November 7.

Meanwhile, the new model of the PSP, which features a significantly brighter screen and built-in microphone, still goes on sale this Thursday for $299. You can also buy it in bundle form with a copy of Lego Batman for $339.

In other news, Microsoft is giving away 100,000 Microsoft points and a Gears of War 2 poster signed by designer Cliff Bleszinski every day from now until the launch of Gears 2 on November 7.

Xbox 360 owners will be able to enjoy exclusive downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV, Fallout 3 and Tomb Raider: Underworld in the future, while PS3 owners are getting treated to new content for BioShock.

The spiraling cost of next-generation game development means the days of exclusive blockbusters from third-party publishers are all-but over, but it seems that exclusive downloadable content might increasingly be used as a way of differentiating between platforms.

It's been rumoured that Microsoft might have paid up to a million dollars to secure the two additional downloadable scenarios for GTA IV from Take 2, but today Screen Play is interested to hear how likely it is for this type of content to affect your console buying decisions.

For those that are lucky enough to already own both consoles, what are the biggest factors in determining which version of a multi-format game that you buy?

And if you only have one machine, are you annoyed that you cannot access additional content that is exclusive to another format?

From the perspective of someone who has had the soul-crushing job of writing thorough game walkthroughs for magazines in the past, it is always astonishing how many people are prepared to devote countless hours to writing game guides for sites like Gamefaqs.

There is no financial incentive to write walkthroughs for most online sites, just some kudos from your peers and the satisfaction that you might have helped a fellow gamer or three squeeze out more enjoyment from their latest purchase.

But as new Screen Play contributor Kelly Holland writes today, not only does writing a walkthrough threaten to sap any enjoyment for the author, but there is also a real risk for the reader that they are doing more harm than good when consulting a guide.

Kelly, who posts on Screen Play using the handle "Cha", is a 27-year old research
assistant based in Melbourne whose favourite games are Silent Hill 2 and Monster Hunter
Freedom 2. Her Your Turn debut can be found below.

One of the biggest releases of the year has been delayed because music lyrics in a background song could have caused offense to Muslim players.

Sony is now hastily recalling all copies of LittleBigPlanet that had been sent to retailers and manufacturing new discs of the PlayStation 3 blockbuster with the offending music track removed.

"During the review process prior to the release of LittleBigPlanet, it has been brought to our attention that one of the background music tracks licensed from a record label for use in the game contains two expressions that can be found in the Qur'an," says a Sony statement.

"We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologise for any offence that this may have caused."

LittleBigPlanet was set for release in Australia on Thursday. A Sony Computer Entertainment Australia spokesman said the company does not yet have a new release date for the game but is confident the delay will be reasonably short.

Good Weekend recently ran a feature on "Game widows" - "women who have lost their partners to the lure of multiplayer online video games".

The piece said the addition "becomes so all-consuming that their offline life shrivels and all intimacy is lost. Relationships fracture as baffled widows try vainly to understand their gamers' fatal attraction to a set of polygons".

Although many gamers feel instantly defensive about any criticism of their favourite past-time, we all know that there are many people out there who simply play too much.

But what I thought was more interesting about the piece was that it attempted to explain why men are more compulsive players than women.

In an argument that echoes Braid creator Jonathon Blow's accusations of "unethical" game design, the story suggested games like World of Warcraft and Everquest deliberately use intermittent rewards "to prey on a peculiar bit of the human psyche, and men are especially vulnerable."

Many thanks to Insomniac President and CEO Ted Price, who informed and entertained 40 lucky Screen Play readers at a fantastic event in Sydney on Friday night.

Ted showed why Resistance 2 looks to be a significant advance on its predecessor before joining Screen Play and other Australian games journalists in a lively panel session exploring many topics and including plenty of crowd participation. Those interested in listing to the panel can download a 60Mb MP3 file here.

At one stage the discussion explored why Insomniac has picked up so many awards for being a great workplace, and an amusing recruitment music video the studio recently put together was screened. I've attached it below.

Many thanks also to Sony for organising the event, which will hopefully be the first of many.

When Screen Play wrote about voice recognition in games a couple of years ago, readers either yawned or voiced scepticism that the technology could ever be reliable enough.

It was the same last year when Ubisoft announced that Tom Clancy's EndWar would be playable using voice commands.

The company is certainly going to have a difficult time convincing sceptical gamers of the value of voice recognition, and their cause wasn't helped at a game launch earlier in the week when a troublesome microphone on stage caused the kind of unreliability that most people associate with those horrendous telephone directory assistance robots.

Undeterred by the cynicism, Vinh-Dieu Lam, a senior artificial intelligence engineer on Tom Clancy's EndWar, spoke to Screen Play earlier this week about the system's benefits for the upcoming real-time strategy game, due next month on PS3 and 360.

Click below for the full interview with Vinh-Dieu, an expatriate Australian who has worked at Ubisoft's Shanghai studio in China for the past four years.

Microsoft recently announced it would shut down Ensemble Studios, creators of the hugely successful Age of Empires series, a move that many have suggested signals the death of the real-time strategy genre.

Of course, with the likes of StarCraft II, Halo Wars, EndWar, Stormrise and Dawn of War II all currently in development, Mark Twain's famous quote that "rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated" is certainly appropriate.

But there is little doubt that the once-popular genre is changing, with developers and publishers now infusing games with more action and bringing strategy titles to consoles as well as their native PC homeland, with some even abandoning the home computer market altogether.

John Capozzi, senior designer at Relic working on Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, chatted to Screen Play earlier in the week and admitted that both the PC games market and the real-time strategy genre were facing significant hurdles.

My youngest son had a very traumatic birth, and was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

All kids are miracles, but my wife and I feel particularly blessed as a lot of physiotherapy and other early intervention, coupled with prayers and my son's very determined personality, has ensured the early "doom and gloom" prognosis never eventuated.

Of course, I often think about how different life would be now if there was no miracle, and try to always remember how fortunate we are.

I was reminded again last week reading this interesting piece in Wired by Andrew Monkelban about life as a disabled gamer.

Andrew has cerebral palsy and is unable to talk or walk, but has loved the challenge of video games ever since he first played Super Mario Bros at aged eight.

After spending the last couple of weeks playing the wonderfully unique, hilarious and hugely ambitious plaything that is LittleBigPlanet, I am prepared to declare that it's going to be very difficult for anything else to dislodge it from the lofty position of "my favourite game of 2008".

The charming LittleBigPlanet might not help shift as many PS3 consoles as Sony hopes, but it is the "killer app" the PS3 so desperately needs. Players of all ages will be entranced and thoroughly entertained.

With up to three friends alongside you joining in the fun, there are over 20 incredibly clever and imaginative platform-leaping obstacle courses to explore, plus dozens of bonus challenges.

The "hand-made" levels are filled with collectibles, puzzles, vehicles, mechanical foes, traps, rollercoaster rides, bosses and hazards like fire and electricity. Each is set in lush areas like colourful gardens, temples, jungles and canyons, with stunning Japanese, Indian and South American-inspired stages the highlight.

The Age's Jim Schembri described last year's ABC series Not Quite Art as "the freshest, most illuminating, thoughtful and funny locally-made arts program in years".

Presenter and writer Marcus Westbury certainly has great skill in being able to question cultural norms in a thought-provoking and amusing manner.

Don't miss series two of Not Quite Art, which starts tonight on ABC at 10pm.

It's another insightful journey through an increasingly fragmented cultural landscape, with Marcus noting that the Internet has given all of us a set of cultural choices and influences unimaginable even a decade ago.

If you're very quick (and have extremely good eyesight) you might even be able to spot my brief cameo appearance in the segment on Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw tonight.

Have you ever been browsing the shelves at your favourite store and noticed someone holding a game that you know is a stinker?

Would you be game to advise them to quickly put it back instead of wasting their hard-earned at the cash register?

Or do you just quietly shake your head when you check out GfK's sales charts when you realise how many copies of dismal games are sold every year, despite many classics often failing to get the attention they deserve?

Maybe the best idea is to just smile pleasantly and hope everyone enjoys their purchases, as James "DexX" Dominguez reveals today that even "rubbish" games can be a lot of fun...

Microsoft has unveiled a new Halo game from acclaimed developers Bungie and announced its redesigned interface for the Xbox 360 will be released on November 19.

Halo 3: Recon is a standalone expansion that lets fans experience events leading up Halo 3 and see the fate of the Earth through the eyes of a new hero - a special forces Orbital Drop Shock Trooper.

Like its predecessor, Recon will feature a story-based campaign as well as multiplayer modes, and is due in Spring 2009 - a 12 month wait.

A description for the game says: "while the feel of this new chapter greatly resembles that of previous Halo experiences, Halo 3: Recon will require you to employ more elements of stealth and cunning than ever before." A brief trailer can be found on the Bungie web site.

Those fortunate enough to be playing LittleBigPlanet at the moment courtesy of Screen Play's recent giveaway will know that some beta testers have already invested countless hours in building their own amazing creations.

Publisher Sony and developer Media Molecule originally planned to turf all this hard work straight in the virtual bin, but seem to have had a change of heart.

You can now vote for whether you would like to have all the user-created levels from the beta test available when the game launches on October 23, or whether you would like everyone to start afresh.

So far the voting is heavily in favour of saving the novel creations, but you can have your say here.

I know it's not cool to out yourself as a SingStar tragic, but I'm not afraid to unleash my inner diva. My rendition of Blondie's Heart of Glass is enough to get everyone off the couch and fighting over the microphone - if only to shut me up...

Anyway, if you haven't experienced the fun that SingStar can offer, October is a great time to give it a try as any SingStar purchase from Big W, Kmart or Target will benefit the Cancer Council.

Sony is also contributing to the marketing campaign for the Cancer Council's Girls Night In fund-raiser, in which women around Australia are encouraged to host a party and the guests donate the money they would have spent in a typical night on the town.

The scheme has raised over $7 million for cancer research, support and prevention programs since 2005.

Screen Play and Sony are giving you the chance to meet Ted Price, founder of one of the most creative and successful development studios in the world.

The President and CEO of Insomniac Games, Ted is coming to Australia next week and will provide 40 lucky Screen Play readers with a special behind-the-scenes look into the making of PS3 blockbuster Resistance 2, plus hands-on time with the upcoming shooter.

The always-passionate and articulate developer will discuss topics including level and weapon design, building multiplayer communities, and how Insomniac has gone about creating hit franchises like Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank and Resistance.

As chairman of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and an important figure in the development of the ratings system for video games in the United States, Ted will also present his thoughts on a wide range of gaming issues, and will be quizzed on stage by Screen Play and a panel of other gaming commentators.

One of the first rules of any web-based forum is: "Do not feed the trolls".

Even in an intelligent and good-natured community like the Screen Play readership, there are those who simply like to post controversial messages to provoke or antagonise others.

Of course, non-gamers might consider it decidedly odd that anyone could get upset on a gaming forum, but many dedicated players are very passionate about their hobby and want to defend their favourite games or their hardware of choice.

Today regular Screen Play contributor Steve Smoothy, a 31-year-old business/system analyst based in Melbourne, risks his personal safety to enter a troll's lair...

Contrary to recent reports, Sega has confirmed it will try to release the controversial Madworld in Australia next year, a Wii game with "over-the-top violence" and "murderous moves".

In Madworld, players control a character called Jack caught up in a murderous game created by terrorists. To survive, players must master the use of weapons and items, perform brutal finishing moves delivered by the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controller, and compete in "ultra violent" mini-games "designed to push you over the edge".

Sega say they hope the game will become an "instant classic" on the Wii thanks to its highly stylised black and white graphics and "irreverent humour and over-the-top violence" which "delivers a visceral gaming experience".

A Sega spokesperson said today that "in response to recent reports regarding the Australian release of Madworld, Sega Australia would like to clarify that we are currently planning on releasing Madworld to the Australian market.

"We believe Madworld will be an asset to the industry and will do what we can to support its release in our territory."

Much has already been written about LittleBigPlanet's wonderful tools for letting players create their own fun, but another game released on October 23 comes with an in-game editor which is just as easy to use.

Far Cry 2, one of the most promising shooters of recent years, lets PS3, Xbox 360 and PC users create their own multiplayer maps to share with others.

Of course, many PC veterans will scoff at any talk of a user-generated revolution, arguing that they have been creating mods of their favourite games for years, with Doom first popularising the mod scene way back in 1994.

But the key difference now is that these tools are so simple that anyone can use them, and you can get good results extremely quickly.

"This is not something for a hardcore level designer, this is a simple way for any player who wants to make a multiplayer map very, very quickly, in the space of just a few minutes," enthuses Ubisoft's Patrick Reading.

Last week Nintendo announced it would be re-releasing some classic GameCube titles for the Wii.

It's easy to be cynical about this development, as Wii is already backward compatible with its predecessor, so you can pick up great Cube games for mere pennies in bargain bins or online auctions and happily enjoy them on the newer console.

But there are games that could benefit from new controls featuring the Wii Remote, including titles Nintendo has already announced for re-issue - the Pikmin games, Mario Tennis, Chibi Robo (which was sadly never originally released in Australia) and Metroid Prime 1 and 2.

Of course, some games might also actually suffer from Wii controls, such as Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, which will no doubt lose its novelty and charm without the Cube's delightful (and under-utilised) bongo controllers.

Click below for some suggestions of other GameCube titles that Nintendo or third party publishers should re-release on Wii, and feel free to nominate your own classics that could benefit from some waggle action.

Screen Play reader "RE12" (not his real name) is a 29-year-old public servant from the nation's capital who says he spends too much time reading Screen Play blogs at work.

RE12 has been using gaming as "an after- work release from day-to-day pressures" for many years, but had his gaming life pleasantly turned upside-down recently after his girlfriend moved in with him.

You can read about RE12's experiences with two demanding mistresses under the one roof by clicking below.

You might also like to visit here for a Screen Play blog from a couple of years ago in which readers suggested some of the best games to introduce your partner to the joys of interactive entertainment.

When they have time for screen play, millions of teenagers around the world don't fire up a console or turn to a PC game, they enter Habbo.

Whether you want to dub Habbo an online world, a social networking website, or just a digital play space, there is no doubting its popularity.

Habbo was created in Finland and is operated by the Sulake Corporation. It will next year celebrate its 10th anniversary, but is still growing and currently enjoys over 100 million registered users.

Screen Play recently caught up with Jeff Brookes, Sulake's regional director for Asia-Pacific, to chat about topics like the genesis of Habbo, the importance of online worlds, what games developers can learn from the likes of Habbo and Facebook, and the future of online communities.

The screens on the Nintendo DSi are 3.25-inches - 17 per cent bigger than the current DS Lite - and the new unit is also slightly thinner than its predecessor.

Nintendo has added a SD memory card slot so users can store photos (taken at 640 x 480 resolution) and download games, with a new DSiWare service to offer both free game demos and games to purchase like the Wii console's online Wii Shop.

The DSi features software for listening to digital music and manipulating your photos, and your images can be transferred to Wii for viewing on television.

Last seen in Screen Play bemoaning the generation gap, Dateman is a 42-year-old gaming veteran from Geelong who swears he is "not a bogan".

Dateman earned his gaming stripes playing the original Castle Wolfenstein on a green screen Apple IIc "sometime during the last century" and can now be found lurking on the PlayStation Network under the moniker "date666".

When he's not trying to teach his kids the original source of pop culture references in The Simpsons, Dateman can often be found cursing new-fangled control schemes.

Click below for his thoughts on what developers should keep in mind when they are designing their next magnum opus...

The games industry's annual Christmas silly season has officially begun, and my desk is now flooded with countless discs, press releases and the odd DS cartridge.

Christmas is the time when publishers typically deliver their tastiest treats, and this year's line-up includes lip-smacking delights like LittleBigPlanet, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Prince of Persia, Resistance 2, Gears of War 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, Fallout 3, Tomb Raider Underworld, Left 4 Dead and Far Cry 2.

Few players will have time to play them all, not to mention the significant finances required.

It's time for publishers to recognise that the interactive entertainment industry is not like the toy business any more and start to more smartly stagger their releases during the year. Big releases will sell at any time of the year (as Grand Theft Auto IV in April proved) while smaller titles will have much more of a chance of finding an audience when they are not competing for attention and pocket money with a dozen shiny new giants.

What is the game at the top of your Christmas shopping list this year? And how many other games do you expect to buy?

Early in the year, companies like Intel, Microsoft and Dell joined together to form the PC Gaming Alliance.

Concerned that the humble beige box was being increasingly marginalised as consoles become more popular with both consumers and publishers, the alliance aims to highlight and promote the PC's gaming strengths to the public as well as analysts and the press.

It will also try to tackle some of the PC's biggest challenges, including piracy, cheating, security and the "consumer experience".

Today prolific Screen Play contributor James "DexX" Dominguez does his bit for the noble cause...

At the recent Games Convention in Leipzig, Xbox 360's Christmas cracker Gears of War 2 was a surprising no-show.

In what seemed like a snub to the PAL territory's biggest event of the year, Microsoft simultaneously held a press event for Epic's bloodthirsty blockbuster in the United States.

The decision seemed at odds with Microsoft's acknowledgment that Xbox 360 is currently underperforming in Europe and that the diverse territory is the key battleground which will ultimately determine the console's fortunes.

But the alternate view, supported by the dominance of casual titles at Microsoft's Games Convention stand, is that Microsoft knows that hardcore gamers will snap up Gears of War 2 without a moment's hesitation, and that the company's focus this Christmas must be on promoting the console's other attributes to a wider audience.

Video games are the new pop. Australians now spend more money on shooters and sims than hip hop and punk rock. Debate the latest news and trends in interactive entertainment with award-winning games writer Jason Hill.

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Dog Man on Top 50 game franchises:
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